Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 55.1 > Subtitle IV > Chapter 19 > Article 3 - Management of Condominium.

• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Articles of incorporation: means all documents constituting, at any particular time, the charter of a corporation. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attorney-in-fact: A person who, acting as an agent, is given written authorization by another person to transact business for him (her) out of court.
• Authorized shares: means the shares of all classes a domestic or foreign corporation is authorized to issue. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Beneficial shareholder: means a person that owns the beneficial interest in shares, which may be a record shareholder or a person on whose behalf shares are registered in the name of an intermediary as nominee. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Capital components: means those items, whether or not a part of the common elements, for which the unit owners' association has the obligation for repair, replacement, or restoration and for which the executive board determines funding is necessary. See Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• City: means an independent incorporated community which became a city as provided by law before noon on July 1, 1971, or which has within defined boundaries a population of 5,000 or more and which has become a city as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-208
• Commission: means the State Corporation Commission of Virginia. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Common elements: means all portions of the condominium other than the units. See Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• Common expenses: means all expenditures lawfully made or incurred by or on behalf of the unit owners' association, together with all funds lawfully assessed for the creation or maintenance of reserves pursuant to the provisions of the condominium instruments. See Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• Common interest community manager: means the same as that term is defined in § Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Condominium: means real property, and any incidents to or interests in such real property, lawfully subject to this chapter by the recordation of condominium instruments pursuant to the provisions of this chapter. See Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• Condominium instruments: means , collectively, the declaration, bylaws, and plats and plans recorded pursuant to the provisions of this chapter. See Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• Condominium unit: means a unit together with the undivided interest in the common elements appertaining to that unit. See Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• Conspicuous: means so written, displayed, or presented that a reasonable person against whom the writing is to operate should have noticed it. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Contractable condominium: means a condominium from which one or more portions of the submitted land may be withdrawn in accordance with the provisions of the declaration and of this chapter. See Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• Convertible land: means a portion of the common elements within which additional units or limited common elements may be created in accordance with the provisions of this chapter. See Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• Convertible space: means a portion of a structure within the condominium that a declarant may convert into one or more units or common elements, including limited common elements, in accordance with the provisions of the declaration and this chapter. See Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• Corporate action: means any action taken by or on behalf of the corporation, including any action taken by the incorporator, the board of directors, a committee, an officer or agent of the corporation, or the shareholders. See Virginia Code 13.1-614.1
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Date of the defective corporate action: means the date, or the approximate date if the exact date is unknown, the defective corporate action was purported to have been taken. See Virginia Code 13.1-614.1
• Declarant: means any person, or group of persons acting in concert, that (i) offers to dispose of its interest in a condominium unit not previously disposed of, including an institutional lender that may not have succeeded to or accepted any special declarant rights pursuant to § Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defective corporate action: means (i) any corporate action purportedly taken that is, and at the time such corporate action was purportedly taken would have been, within the power of the corporation, but is void or voidable due to a failure of authorization, or (ii) an over-issuance of shares. See Virginia Code 13.1-614.1
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• delivery: means any method of delivery used in conventional commercial practice, including delivery by hand, mail, commercial delivery, and, if authorized in accordance with § Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Disinterested director: means , except with respect to Article 14 (§ Virginia Code 13.1-603
• disposition: refers to any voluntary transfer of a legal or equitable interest in a condominium unit to a purchaser, but does not include the transfer or release of security for a debt. See Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• Distribution: means a direct or indirect transfer of cash or other property, except the corporation's own shares, or incurrence of indebtedness by a corporation to or for the benefit of its shareholders in respect of any of its shares. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Document: means (i) any tangible medium on which information is inscribed, and includes handwritten, typed, printed, or similar instruments and copies of such instruments, or (ii) an electronic record. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• domestic corporation: means a corporation authorized by law to issue shares, irrespective of the nature of the business to be transacted, organized under this chapter or existing pursuant to the laws of the Commonwealth on January 1, 1986, or which, by virtue of articles of incorporation, amendment, or merger, has become a domestic corporation of the Commonwealth, even though also being a corporation organized under laws other than the laws of the Commonwealth, or that has become a domestic corporation of the Commonwealth pursuant to Article 12. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Domestic partnership: means an association of two or more persons to carry on as co-owners a business for profit formed under § Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Electronic: means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Electronic means: means any form of communication, not directly involving the physical transmission of paper, that creates a record that may be retained, retrieved, and reviewed by a recipient of such communication. See Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• Electronic record: means information that is stored in an electronic or other nontangible medium and is retrievable in paper form through an automated process used in conventional commercial practice, unless otherwise authorized in accordance with subdivision A 10 of § Virginia Code 13.1-603
• electronically transmitted: means any form or process of communication, not directly involving the physical transfer of paper or another tangible medium, that (i) is suitable for the retention, retrieval, and reproduction of information by the recipient, and (ii) is retrievable in paper form by the recipient through an automated process used in conventional commercial practice, unless otherwise authorized in accordance with subdivision A 10 of § Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Eligible entity: means a domestic or foreign unincorporated entity or a domestic or foreign nonstock corporation. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Employee: includes , unless otherwise provided in the bylaws, an officer but not a director. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• Entity: includes any domestic or foreign corporation; any domestic or foreign nonstock corporation; any domestic or foreign unincorporated entity; any estate or trust; and any state, the United States and any foreign government. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Executive board: means an executive and administrative entity, by whatever name denominated, designated in the condominium instruments as the governing body of the unit owners' association. See Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• Executive session: A portion of the Senate's daily session in which it considers executive business.
• Expandable condominium: means a condominium to which additional land may be added in accordance with the provisions of the declaration and this chapter. See Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• Expenses: means reasonable expenses of any kind that are incurred in connection with a matter. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Failure of authorization: means the failure to authorize, approve, or otherwise effect a corporate action in compliance with the provisions of this chapter, the articles of incorporation or bylaws, a corporate resolution, or any plan or agreement to which the corporation is a party, if and to the extent such failure would render such corporate action voidable. See Virginia Code 13.1-614.1
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Foreign corporation: means a corporation authorized by law to issue shares, organized under laws other than the laws of the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Foreign nonstock corporation: means a corporation that is incorporated under a law other than the law of the Commonwealth and would, based on its public organic record, be a nonstock corporation if incorporated under the law of the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Foreign partnership: means an association of two or more persons to carry on as co-owners of a business for profit formed under the laws of any state or jurisdiction other than the Commonwealth, and includes, for all purposes of the laws of the Commonwealth, a foreign registered limited liability partnership. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Foreign unincorporated entity: means a foreign partnership, foreign limited liability company, foreign limited partnership, or foreign business trust. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• in writing: include any representation of words, letters, symbols, numbers, or figures, whether (i) printed or inscribed on a tangible medium or (ii) stored in an electronic or other medium and retrievable in a perceivable form and whether an electronic signature authorized by Virginia Code 1-257
• Includes: means includes, but not limited to. See Virginia Code 1-218
• Individual: means a natural person. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Institutional lender: means one or more commercial or savings banks, savings and loan associations, trust companies, credit unions, industrial loan associations, insurance companies, pension funds, or business trusts, including real estate investment trusts, any other lender regularly engaged in financing the purchase, construction, or improvement of real estate, or any assignee of loans made by such a lender, or any combination of any of the foregoing entities. See Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• Interest: means either or both of the following rights under the organic law governing an unincorporated entity:

  1. See Virginia Code 13.1-603

• Interest holder: means a person who holds of record an interest. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Interest holder liability: means :

  1. See Virginia Code 13.1-603

• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Land: is a three-dimensional concept and includes parcels with upper or lower boundaries, or both upper and lower boundaries, as well as parcels extending ab solo usque ad coelum. See Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Limited common element: means a portion of the common elements reserved for the exclusive use of those entitled to the use of one or more, but less than all, of the units. See Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Locality: means a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 1-221
• Merger: means a transaction pursuant to § Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Oath: includes affirmation. See Virginia Code 1-228
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Officer: means any member of the executive board or official of the unit owners' association. See Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• Organic law: means the statute governing the internal affairs of a domestic or foreign corporation or eligible entity. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Organic rules: means the public organic record and private organic rules of a domestic or foreign corporation or eligible entity. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Over-issuance of shares: means the purported issuance of:

  1. See Virginia Code 13.1-614.1

• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: includes an individual and an entity. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Person: means a natural person, corporation, partnership, association, trust, or other entity capable of holding title to real property, or any combination thereof. See Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• Personal representative: includes the executor of a will or the administrator of the estate of a decedent, the administrator of such estate with the will annexed, the administrator of such estate unadministered by a former representative, whether there is a will or not, any person who is under the order of a circuit court to take into his possession the estate of a decedent for administration, and every other curator of a decedent's estate, for or against whom suits may be brought for causes of action that accrued to or against the decedent. See Virginia Code 1-234
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Principal office: means the office, in or out of the Commonwealth, where the principal executive offices of a domestic or foreign corporation are located, or, if there are no such offices, the office, in or out of the Commonwealth, so designated by the board of directors. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Private organic rules: means (i) the bylaws of a domestic or foreign corporation or nonstock corporation or (ii) the rules, regardless of whether in writing, that govern the internal affairs of an unincorporated entity, are binding on all its interest holders, and are not part of its public organic record. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Proceeding: includes civil suit and criminal, administrative, and investigatory action. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
• Public corporation: means a corporation that has shares listed on a national securities exchange or regularly traded in a market maintained by one or more members of a national or affiliated securities association. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Public organic record: means (i) the articles of incorporation of a domestic or foreign corporation or nonstock corporation or (ii) the document, the filing of which is required to create an unincorporated entity. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Purchaser: means any person, other than a declarant, that acquires by means of a voluntary transfer a legal or equitable interest in a condominium unit, other than (i) a leasehold interest, including renewal options, of less than 20 years or (ii) as security for a debt. See Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• Putative shares: means the shares of any class or series of the corporation, including shares issued upon exercise of rights, options, warrants, or other securities convertible into shares of the corporation, or interests with respect to such shares, that were created or issued as a result of a defective corporate action, that (i) but for any failure of authorization would constitute valid shares or (ii) cannot be determined by the board of directors to be valid shares. See Virginia Code 13.1-614.1
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• real estate: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights and appurtenances thereto and interests therein, other than a chattel interest. See Virginia Code 1-219
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Recess: A temporary interruption of the legislative business.
• Record date: means the date fixed for determining the identity of the corporation's shareholders and their shareholdings for purposes of this chapter. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Record shareholder: means (i) the person in whose name shares are registered in the records of the corporation or (ii) the person identified as the beneficial owner of shares in a beneficial ownership certificate pursuant to § Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Reserve study: means a capital budget planning tool used to determine the physical status and estimated repair or replacement cost of capital components and an analysis of association funding capacity to maintain, repair, and replace capital components. See Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• Secretary: means the corporate officer or other individual to whom the board of directors has delegated responsibility under subsection C of § Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Share exchange: means a transaction pursuant to § Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Shareholder: means a record shareholder. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Shares: means the units into which the proprietary interests in a corporation are divided. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• signature: means , with present intent to authenticate or adopt a document: (i) to execute or adopt a tangible symbol to a document, and includes any manual, facsimile, or conformed signature; or (ii) to attach to or logically associate with an electronic transmission an electronic sound, symbol, or process, and includes an electronic signature in an electronic transmission. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Size: means the number of cubic feet, or the number of square feet of ground or floor space, within each unit as computed by reference to the plat and plans and rounded to the nearest whole number. See Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• Special declarant rights: means any right reserved for the benefit of a declarant, or of a person or group of persons that becomes a declarant, to (i) expand an expandable condominium; (ii) contract a contractable condominium; (iii) convert convertible land or convertible space or both; (iv) appoint or remove any officers of the unit owners' association or the executive board pursuant to subsection A of § Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• Supreme Court: means the Supreme Court of Virginia. See Virginia Code 1-249
• sworn: means "affirm" or "affirmed. See Virginia Code 1-250
• Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
• Trust account: A general term that covers all types of accounts in a trust department, such as estates, guardianships, and agencies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Unit: means a portion of the condominium designed and intended for individual ownership and use. See Virginia Code 55.1-1900
• United States: includes district, authority, bureau, commission, department, and any other agency of the United States. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• United States: includes the 50 states, the District of Columbia the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-255
• Unrestricted voting trust beneficial owner: means , with respect to any shareholder rights, a voting trust beneficial owner whose entitlement to exercise the shareholder right in question is not inconsistent with the voting trust agreement. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• User fees: Fees charged to users of goods or services provided by the government. In levying or authorizing these fees, the legislature determines whether the revenue should go into the treasury or should be available to the agency providing the goods or services.
• Valid shares: means the shares of any class or series of the corporation that have been duly authorized and validly issued in accordance with this chapter, including as a result of ratification or validation under this article. See Virginia Code 13.1-614.1
• Voting group: means all shares of one or more classes or series that under the articles of incorporation or this chapter are entitled to vote and be counted together collectively on a matter at a meeting of shareholders. See Virginia Code 13.1-603
• Voting trust beneficial owner: means an owner of a beneficial interest in shares of the corporation held in a voting trust established pursuant to subsection A of § Virginia Code 13.1-603
• written: means any information in the form of a document. See Virginia Code 13.1-603